Hardware Requirements

Web Server Requirements

The Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing system is a software product loaded onto a hardware server. New installations of Web Conferencing require a Cisco MCS that is dedicated to Cisco Unified MeetingPlace applications.

Note: If you host Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing and Cisco Unified MeetingPlace for Outlook on the same server, the system capacity for supporting web-conferencing user licenses is reduced by 20 percent. For example, if your system supports 500 web users and you add Cisco Unified MeetingPlace for Outlook on the same server, the system capacity for supporting web-conferencing user licenses is reduced by 20 percent, from 500 to 400.

Web Server Capacities

The number of ports that a Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing server can support depends on the following:

The type of hardware.

Whether SSL is used. (Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing systems configured with SSL support 30 percent fewer ports than systems that do not use SSL.)

The collocation of other Cisco Unified MeetingPlace components on the hardware. Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing servers collocated with either Cisco Unified MeetingPlace for Microsoft Outlook or Cisco Unified MeetingPlace for IBM Lotus Notes support 20 percent fewer ports than systems without either of those components collocated.

The following table lists the number of Web Conferencing ports supported per server based on the most common configurations.

Enter the values from the table above into the Max Concurrent Web Conference Users field on the Web Server page of the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Administration Center.

Note that if you have a Cisco Unified MeetingPlace web cluster configuration (two or more web servers operating in cluster mode), you must enter the same value for each web server. The value that you enter is the sum of the ports supported by the cluster configuration. For example, if you have two Cisco MCS 7845-H2 servers with SSL enabled and Cisco Unified MeetingPlace for Microsoft Outlook is configured on one web server, then use the value for that configuration from the table above and multiply it by two. (You do not need to factor in that the second web server does not host Cisco Unified MeetingPlace for Microsoft Outlook.) In this example, the value for that specific configuration is 280 so you should enter 560 for the Max Concurrent Web Conference Users parameter. Enter this value for each server in your cluster.

NOTE: There is no table available showing the number of Web Conferencing ports supported for deployments involving other Cisco Unified MeetingPlace components such as Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Directory Services or the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace H.323/SIP IP Gateway. We highly recommend that you use a dedicated Cisco MCS for these other integrations if you cannot reduce the values documented above to accommodate the collocation of these other components. Note that the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace H.323/SIP IP Gateway and Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Directory Services loads are directly connected to the size of your deployment, including the volume of voice conferencing and the number of Cisco Unified MeetingPlace end-user profiles.

System Capacity

The Cisco Unified MeetingPlace 8112 Audio Server can scale to 960 IP, 1152 T1-CAS, 960 E1-PRI, or 768 T1-PRI concurrent users, whereas the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace 8106 Audio Server can scale to half the size of the 8112 platform. A single meeting can support up to 550 participants.
Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Release 6.0 Web Conferencing can support up to 1000 concurrent Web conferencing users with a cluster of two Cisco MCSs. Each server in a cluster can support up to 500 concurrent web conferencing users and 100 concurrent meetings, and the maximum meeting size is 1000 participants (refer to Web Server Capacities for details). Participants can join at a maximum rate of 4 connections per second per cluster.

When voice, video, and web conferencing are deployed together, the maximum simultaneous use capacity is 1000 combined voice, video, and web connections per system. For example:

If you have 1,000 voice and video connections, you can have 0 web connections.

If you have 800 voice and video connections, you can have 200 web connections.

If you have 500 voice and video connections, you can have 500 web connections.

If you have 200 voice and video connections, you can have 800 web connections.

If you have 0 voice and video connections, you can have 1,000 web connections.

Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Video Integration supports up to 72 videoconferencing participants per chassis from 128 kbps to 2 Mbps per participant on the Cisco Unified Videoconferencing 3500 Series MCUs. Multiple chassis can be deployed in a single cluster, with up to 240 video participants per cluster.

Networking Requirements

Confirm that the system meets the following requirements so that the web server can communicate with the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Audio Server system:

TCP ports 5003 and 5005 are open bidirectional between the web server and Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Audio Servers (primary server and shadow server, if one exists).

The Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Audio Server can initiate a reverse connection to the web server, thus eliminating the need for you to open port 5003 from the web server to the Audio Server. For the reverse connection to be initiated, you must enter the MeetingPlace Server name as a host name instead of an IP address during the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing installation. You will also have to manually configure this web server unit on the Audio Server.

Connectivity between the web server and its host Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Audio Server is of high quality and not subject to interruptions because of traffic congestion. Any time the round-trip latency exceeds 100 ms or there is more than 1 percent packet loss, you should expect a noticeable reduction in service quality.

The Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Audio Server must be connected to a network switch port that is configured for auto-negotiate.

Cisco Unified MeetingPlace gateways must be connected to network switch ports that are configured for 100/1000 MB Full Duplex.

The following additional networking requirements must also be met for Web Conferencing:

The web server must be configured with two static IP addresses on the same subnet.

TCP port 1433 must be open bidirectional between the Web Conferencing server and SQL Server if SQL is installed remotely.

SQL Server Requirements

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and Service Pack 4 are included with the Web Conferencing Release 6.0 installer. These required components install automatically on the Cisco MCS if you choose the local SQL Server installation option.

For Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Release 6.0 Maintenance Release 3 (MR3) and later:
Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing can now be used with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 for remote SQL Server-based deployments. Standard, local SQL Server deployments continue to use Microsoft SQL Server 2000 that can be automatically installed by the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web installer when you choose the local SQL Server option during installation.

To use Microsoft SQL Server 2005, you must first use the Microsoft installation program called SQLServer2005_BC.msi (Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Backward Compatibility Components) to install the version of SQL Distributed Management Objects (DMO) that is compatible with Microsoft SQL Server 2000 onto the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing server. You only need to upgrade the SQL-DMO part and not the other four components covered by this installation program.

Notes:

If you are deploying Web Conferencing by using the remote SQL Server option, you must preinstall SQL Server 2000 with Service Pack 4 before you install Web Conferencing.

If you need to manually install SQL Server, you must install and configure your SQL Server to be case insensitive because Web Conferencing supports only SQL Server case-insensitive configurations. If you configure your SQL server to be case sensitive, Web Conferencing will not function properly.

You may choose to deploy more complex, remote SQL Server topologies, such as a server farm. To properly operate in a remote SQL Server configuration, Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing requires an Open DataBase Connectivity (ODBC) Data Source Name (DSN) that points to an installation of Microsoft SQL Server 2000 with Service Pack 4 or Microsoft SQL Server 2005 with Service Pack 2 (in backward compatibility mode) with correct permissions to the MPWEB database, and on the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Server the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 backward compatibility software – DMO (Distributed Management Objects) component.

In such a topology, customers are responsible for supporting and ensuring the stability and performance of the remote SQL Server deployment. Any decrease in SQL Server transaction performance or network latency between the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing server and the remote SQL Server can have a negative impact on Web Conferencing performance up to and including a complete system outage depending on the scale of the slow down. Cisco assumes that the SQL environment is appropriately sized and properly installed by the customer prior to installing Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing, and is monitored and maintained properly after installing Web Conferencing.

NOTE: You must install and configure a remote SQL Server to be case insensitive because Web Conferencing supports only SQL Server case-insensitive configurations. If you configure your SQL Sserver to be case sensitive, Web Conferencing will not function properly.

(Optional) Integration Requirements: Third Party Audio Conversion and Playback

Audio Conversion

A third-party audio service is not required to convert audio files to MP3, WAV or WMA format. Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing uses its internal audio service component and bundled encoders to convert audio attachments into these formats.

No new ports need to be opened for this integration. The system uses the existing 80 and 443 ports exclusively.

Cisco WebEx

Cisco WebEx WBS26 system release on your Cisco WebEx site

Cisco WebEx MeetingCenter or Cisco WebEx MeetingCenter Pro.

Cisco WebEx Sales Center is optional in Maintenance Release 2, 3, and 4. We do not support Cisco WebEx Sales Center in Maintenance Release 5 and later.

Limitations and Restrictions

During the scheduling process, the scheduler can choose to define certain users to be "alternate hosts". Alternate hosts can start the meeting if the meeting scheduler does not arrive on time. However, to be listed as an alternate host, a user must have an e-mail address, first name, and last name set in his user profile.

If any user who is defined as an alternate host does not have this information, the system marks the meeting invalid, and it is locked and no one can attend it, not even the meeting scheduler or other attendees. Even if all the other alternate hosts and the meeting host have an e-mail address, first name, and last name set in their user profiles, if just one alternate host does not, the meeting cannot be attended by anyone. The system will set the user profile of anyone who tries to attend the meeting (even users with e-mail address, first name, and last name set in their user profiles) to inactive on Cisco WebEx and they will lose the ability to attend any meetings.

Therefore, we highly recommend that you populate the user profile for anyone who will ever be invited to a Cisco WebEx meeting with an e-mail address, first name, and last name.

If you invite an alternate host whose Cisco WebEx user account is inactive, the system will "hang" and the alternate host will see a blank window.

Types of Cisco WebEx Service Contracts

Minutes

With this model, Cisco WebEx charges the customer for web-meeting minutes consumed by attendees.

Concurrent Ports

With this model, the customer purchases a certain number of Cisco WebEx ports. A port corresponds to a web-meeting attendee. The number of attendees that can join meetings system-wide is limited to the number of ports purchased; hence the term "concurrent ports".

Named Host

With this model, only someone who is explicitly named as a host can schedule a meeting.

For Maintenance Release 5 and later:

The Named Host license has two types:

Limited Named Hosts: Only allows a certain number of hosts on the Cisco WebEx site.

Unlimited Named Hosts: Allows an unlimited number of hosts on the Cisco WebEx site.

Limitation for Cisco WebEx Named Host contracts:

If the user profile for User A has the "Hide Web Conference Provider" field set to Yes and the "Default Provider" field set to either MeetingPlace or Group Default, then User A has access to Cisco Unified MeetingPlace scheduling only and not to Cisco Webex scheduling.

However, if User B invites User A to be an alternate host or attendee for a Cisco WebEx meeting, then the system creates an account for User A as a host on the Cisco WebEx site.

This limitation may potentially result in Cisco WebEx overage charges if end users schedule meetings from the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace web-based scheduler. To avoid this, we strongly recommend that end users schedule their Cisco WebEx web and Cisco Unified MeetingPlace audio meetings using the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Outlook Plug-In, which does not expose the same limitation.

For Maintenance Release 4 and earlier:

The Named Host license requires a Cisco WebEx user account for each profiled user of Cisco Unified MeetingPlace. If there are more Cisco Unified MeetingPlace users than Cisco WebEx users, some users will be able to schedule but not actually join the meeting.

The following requirements are in addition to standard Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing hardware and software system requirements as indicated in Hardware Requirements and Software Requirements. Make sure that you meet the following requirements before you attempt the SMA-2S deployment.

Hardware Requirements

Two single Cisco MCSs or clusters of Cisco MCSs (in the case of load balancing)

Make sure that the internal host names and IP addresses are accessible only from the internal network.

Make sure that the external host names or IP addresses are accessible from both the internal network and the Internet.

Port Access Requirements

Make sure that the following ports are open between the DMZ and the internal network:

TCP ports 5003 and 5005 are open bidirectional between the web server and the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Audio Servers (primary server and shadow server, if one exists).

If you configured your network for reverse connection, where your web servers are configured with a MeetingPlace Server hostname instead of an IP address, the Audio Server can initiate a reverse connection to the web server in the DMZ when port 5003 inbound is blocked.

Make sure that the following ports are open inbound from the Internet to the DMZ:

Additional Requirements

Synchronized GUIDS between Internal and DMZ servers

The database of the internal server and external server must contain identical GUIDS.

WebConnect Requirements

WebConnect is used to make web scheduling and meeting attendance seamless across multiple Cisco Unified MeetingPlace systems. Make sure that your system meets the following requirements before you configure WebConnect.

Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Audio Server Requirements

Cisco Unified MeetingPlace MeetingTime Release 6.0 with the following settings:

User profile > Sched only on scheduling home server? > No

User profile > Sched only on NS home site? > No

System Parameters > Allow Vanity Mtg IDs? > Yes

Additional Requirements

Make sure that all sites within the Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Image are running the same build-level release of Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Audio Server.

Make sure that all systems within a site have the same system options and notification vehicles. For example, MeetingNotes, Cisco Unified MeetingPlace SMTP E-Mail Gateway, Microsoft Outlook.

For external dedicated sites, make sure that you are using VPN (T1 or Frame Relay).

For rollover map configurations, make sure that you assign all users to a group.

Note: You must assign all groups to a rollover map (even if the rollover map only has one site).

You must have Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Directory Services or a similar profile synchronization procedure deployed on a dedicated server.

End-User Requirements

Make sure that user workstations meet the client requirements in this section, or provide these requirements to your users. All client machines must have separate Internet and telephony access for attending voice and web conferences. The recommended minimum bandwidth is a 56K modem connection. A lesser connection can slow down web-conferencing performance.

Service packs (SPs) listed are required minimums, and service pack releases later than the ones listed are assumed to work unless documented otherwise.

If this port is not open, the meeting console establishes a slightly slower connection by tunneling through port 80.

Requirements for Sharing Desktop Content and Applications

Cisco Unified Presenter Add-In (can be downloaded from the Browser Test link on the Web Conferencing home page or from within the meeting console).

After you download and install the Cisco Unified Presenter Add-In, you must log in to Cisco Unified MeetingPlace locally and not by using a roaming profile. Cisco Unified MeetingPlace does not support roaming profiles because in that case, your settings (including the add-in) are not stored locally but on a server drive.

NOTE: You must have administrator privileges on your computer to install or use the Cisco Unified Presenter Add-In.

Additional Requirements for Video Conferencing

Requirements for Playing Meeting Recordings

To listen to voice recordings, users must have a corresponding audio player installed on their end-user systems. The following table lists the audio file formats supported by Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing as well as the encoder used to convert the format, the player, and media server responsible for each format.

For example:
We recommend that you configure Windows Media Server to enable streaming playback of your audio recordings. See To Configure the Windows Media Server. You must install and configure supported services and end-user applications in order for playback to work.

Typically, WAV files are supported by common web browsers and do not require a dedicated server, encoder, and player.

Note: If the server is running out of disk space while a current recording is being made, the system notifies all users that there is no more space available. To reduce the likelihood of this occurrence, see About Audio File Conversion.

If this port is not open, the meeting console establishes a slightly slower connection by tunneling through port 80.

Requirements for Sharing Desktop Content and Applications

Cisco Unified Presenter Add-In (can be downloaded from the Browser Test link on the Web Conferencing home page or from within the meeting console).

NOTE: You must have administrator privileges on your computer to install or use the Cisco Unified Presenter Add-In.

Restrictions and Limitations

The Cisco Unified Presenter Add-In, when used with Macs, can use almost all of the CPU. For example, with Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Release 6.0 Maintenance Release 3 (MR3) and earlier, using the Cisco Unified Presenter Add-In to watch a presenter's application sharing session uses 25% of the CPU on a MacBook dual core 2GHz. The CPU usage spikes to 40% when the presenter moves the mouse cursor and CPU usage spikes to 90-100% when the active speaker changes. With Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Release 6.0 MR 4 and later, the amount of CPU used is less, but still significant.

Client Requirements: Sun Solaris

Operating System

Solaris 9 or a later release

Web Browser

Mozilla Firefox 1.5

Requirements For Participating in a Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conference

Screen sharing and file sharing from the desktop are not available on Unix systems. Users on these systems can share a whiteboard or meeting attachment, view shared files and make annotations, but they cannot share files that reside on their systems with other participants.

(Optional) Audio player that plays WAV, WMA, or MP3 files.

NOTE: You must have administrator privileges on your computer to install or use the Cisco Unified Presenter Add-In.

Client Requirements: RedHat Linux

Operating System

RedHat 9 or a later release

Web Browser

Mozilla Firefox 1.5 or later

Requirements For Participating in a Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Web Conference

Screen sharing and file sharing from the desktop are not available on Linux systems. Users on these systems can share a whiteboard or meeting attachment, view shared files and make annotations, but they cannot share files that reside on their systems with other participants.

(Optional) Audio player that plays WAV, WMA, or MP3 files.

NOTE: You must have administrator privileges on your computer to install or use the Cisco Unified Presenter Add-In.

Caution! Do not delete the SQL Server database if you want to maintain your current click-to-attend links, attachments, and meeting recordings. Deleting or rebuilding your current database deletes all this information.